Cuba photo tour, Havana & Trinidad

More info:Price includes accommodation, daily breakfast and lunch, airport transfers, ground transport, entry visa for Cuba, constant photographic tutoring. It does not include flights to Havana, dinners, and personal travel insurance.

Check dates

2018: 15 Mar

Vouchers

Accepted

Responsible tourism

Responsible tourism: Cuba photo tour, Havana & Trinidad

Environment

Environmental Work: We believe in the power of photography; the power to create incredible experiences, and the power to make a positive impact. That’s why we founded our own Trust, a non-profit organisation that uses photography to make a positive impact on both a social and conservation level. We finance the running costs of this Trust, so by just by joining one of our workshops, you're indirectly contributing. (So all you have to do to make a difference is have the photo adventure of a lifetime!)

Through this Trust, we provide free professional photography to charities doing environmental and conservation work; images they can use for fundraising and communication purposes.

Environmental Policies During the Photo Tour:

Recycling & Reusing: During our Cuba photo tour, we ensure to re-use and recycle wherever possible, and inform our clients on ways of doing this. While Cuba isn't overly advanced with official recycling business, we have found a creative way of recycling and reusing. One of the great things about Cubans is their incredible ingenuity and ability to reuse and repurpose, due to a constant shortage of supply of materials because of the continuing US embargo. The Cubans have become adept and finding innovative ways to solve problems. During our tours, we find people who are busy collecting these ready for recycling. We try to collect ours together at the accommodation and make sure they find their way to someone who will either re-use or recycle.

Water: As you can't drink the tap water and can only drink bottled water, it's very difficult to not avoid plastic bottles entirely. However, we do encourage guests to buy larger bottles of water and refill flasks or smaller bottles to take out. We also make sure that the bottles are recycled whenever possible.

Transport: Travel is mostly on foot, ensuring we keep our carbon footprint low. When we do have to travel further than walking distance we always use local drivers and transport, preferring whenever possible to use the bicycle or Coco taxis. When we travel between cities we work closely with our local contacts to organise transport in advance.

Office policies: At our office in Cape Town, we recycle, compost, and minimise the use of paper by predominantly working with digital files.

Carbon Footprint Compensation: To compensate for our carbon footprint, we sponsor a tree for each participant, which is planted by Greenpop in their reforestation or urban greening programs in Southern Africa. We'll give you a ‘tree ring,’ a key ring that has the coordinates of their tree, so that you know exactly where it’s growing.

Community

Community Work: Apart from supporting conservation initiatives through our photography, we also support social nonprofits. We provide free professional photography to charities that do valuable work and can use the images for fundraising purposes.

Through this Trust, we also run PhotoVoice workshops for youth in underprivileged South African communities. We identify talented young individuals with an interest in and talent for photography, and provide workshops where we encourage them to tell their stories, and the stories of their communities, through photography. We teach them creative self-expression, and the power visual images can have. Participants are encouraged to raise awareness about issues that matter most to them, which stimulates positive activism.

Supporting the Local Economy: We have a great network of contacts in country who help us with everything from organising accommodation and days out, to recommending restaurants, as well as acting as interpreters and tour guides. They're all locally employed and are well paid for their time and knowledge. We encourage our guests to club together to give a little tip or bonus to our guides at the end of the trip and, although it's definitely not compulsory, we've found that everyone has learned so much and enjoyed their company and knowledge that they're usually asking before we've suggested it.

Assisting Cuban Communities: In Cuba, there is a constant shortage of supply; everything from car parts to household supplies. We encourage our guests to bring along unwanted clothes and toiletries; both things which are often hard to find and expensive for locals. We also work with a local children's football team in Havana who we bring footballs and trainers; things which we consider every day items that they struggled to find.

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More info:Price includes accommodation, daily breakfast and lunch, airport transfers, ground transport, entry visa for Cuba, constant photographic tutoring. It does not include flights to Havana, dinners, and personal travel insurance.